Saturday, September 6, 2008

Welcome to our third week of classes!

In class on Friday, I asked you to consider the "genre" and the "intended audience" of the book Inviting Disaster. Many of you were astute to comment that this book was certainly not written for engineering professionals. If this is the case, what elements of the book (style, content, or other) lead you to this conclusion? Another interesting question is this: why would people be interested in a book like Inviting Disaster? Finally, based on what you've read, does the author do a good job, via his writing style, of engaging you as a reader, of making you want to reader further? What is it about his writing that does or does not make you want to continue reading? I look forward to reading your comments on any or all of the ideas I've raised here.

18 comments:

FIRST POST. I think people would read the book without it being required for a class because a lot of people gravitate to death and destruction. Like a train wreck, we don't want to look but just have to.

I conquer with Kent in respect to how interesting, although some what evil, the topics of destruction and death are discussed in the book and how everyone naturally gravitates towards these occurrences. Although it's dificult to say whether the author did a good job or not based on who the audience is each time, overall i believe that he did a pretty good keeping the reader interested in every incident.

Lets face it. We all love a good accident. When you hear a car accident you know dam well you can't wait to see what happened. Now as to making a profit on national tragedy. I'm a republican so I can appreciate the idea.......but that doesn't make it any more ok. This book should really be more focused about how we've learned from the mistakes of past instead of glorifying them. That's all I have to say about that.

I think that the author does an okay job of engaging the reader. While i was reading the book there were parts where it seemed like the author got off subject by giving the reader too much extra information. Because of all the extra information i lost track of the original topic.

Well, "Inviting Disaster, Lessons from the Edge of Technology" is a very descriptive title which can be rephrased to, "Lessons from Technological Disisters". Anyone who needs a conversation topic can use these historical accounts as a reference or even a solution to an argument. Maybe one's inner child still gravitates towards explosions. I watched the show when I was just a kid. It's part of why I'm into Mechanical Engineering.

The book was written for anyone interested in historical fiction, particularly that involving engineering screw-ups, which would cover a large group of people, because good news doesn't sell papers, and we all love a good public execution.The author does a good job most of the time, but as Jaclene pointed out, sometimes overwhelms the reader with excess information. The excess information can be really confusing at times, especially when the author was discussing the piping systems that failed at Three Mile Island. Overall the author does a good job entertaining the reader with interestingly morbid stories.

I believe that this book is very interesting and draws you into reading more. While it is a fun and interesting book to read, I have found that the author jumps around in the stories a lot. I think this book is meant for casual and "fun" reading.

The most prevelant element that showed me the this book was not written mainly for engineering professionals is the author's casual tone. I have no idea why some people would be interested in this book, unless they where engineers or training to become engineers and were tired of reading the same old text books or text book style novels written by other engineers turned author. I think the author does a good job of engaging the reader. But because the book is a bunch of little stories it was hard for me to stay focused and keep up when the story before had a different mind-set, or something to that effect.

I feel that "Inventing Disaster" is a book worth reading because it describes the mistakes that engineers have made in the past. These accounts of failure are intriguing because it show how we can improve upon what we build and create.